


After Arnes Hours

by ConvenientAlias



Category: Shades of Magic - V. E. Schwab
Genre: Double Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 16:03:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19429369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/pseuds/ConvenientAlias
Summary: Holland smells like Red London.





	After Arnes Hours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [laireshi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laireshi/gifts).



Ros Vortalis sniffs the air. He looks at Holland and raises his eyebrows.

Holland knows perfectly well that he smells like perfume and strong magic, Arnesian scent strong on his clothes and skin. Yes, he’s been visiting the foreign mistress, the one that threw his lawful wife, Makt, to the dogs. Vortalis has every right to call him on it. He should not be indulging in Arnesian pleasures after the strong stance they took with Red London’s emissary.

But Vortalis doesn’t say anything. He merely looks at Holland, then looks away.

Holland doesn’t speak either. Pointless to apologize for things he won’t change. His blood is restless, and if it doesn’t rest in Red London either, it certainly doesn’t rest here, not even in Vortalis’ attempted utopia. So fuck Vortalis, and fuck guilt. His travels, like his dreams and nightmares, are his own.

(Years later, he’ll wonder if, perhaps, Vortalis wasn’t entirely condemning. If he was curious. If Holland should have told him— but no. Pointless to tantalize a man with things he’ll never see, a realm that will never be his. It hurt Holland enough. Better that Vortalis was spared this one grief, the taunting of magic and perfume.)


End file.
